The present invention relates generally to a swimming aid, and more particularly, to a swimming aid provided with a floating member for floating the upper half of swimmer's body and a bottom viewer for providing a wide visual field forward and underwater.
A conventional type inflatable swimming aid, as shown in FIG. 6 is well known in the art.
Such swimming aids are generally made of vinyl chloride resin, and comprise a plurality of hollow floatation portions 01 and a bottom viewer 02 made of transparent vinyl chloride resin. The bottom viewer 02 is provided at the front portion of the boat. A swimmer can see underwater through the bottom viewer 02. It will be appreciated that the swimmer must lay with his upper body on the central floating portions 01 so as to position his head above the bottom viewer 02.
The above described conventional swimming aid has, however, some problems. First, since the floating portions 01 are made of thin vinyl chloride resin which is very flexible, the boat tends to bend due to waves or the swimmer's weight and therefore is not very stable. Since the swimming aid is substantially flat, the swimmer tends to fall off of it when the aid is inclined by force of waves, in addition, water tends to stay in the bottom viewer portion, thereby degrading visibility. Furthermore, the drag of the conventional inflatable aid in the water is great. It will be noted that in the conventional swimming aid, the boat is relatively difficult to propel due to this great drag. Further, since it is inflatable, if it is punctured or otherwise caused to loose air it will become useless.